On behalf of IBFAN, Mike Brady, Campaigns Coordinator at Baby Milk
Action/IBFAN UK, took part in a panel discussion on /Challenges and
Opportunities of a Treaty Addressing Corporate Abuses of Human Rights/on
November 18, 2015. This event was jointly organized by ESCR-Net, Al-Haq,
FIDH, Franciscans International and IBFAN-GIFA.

In front of a full room, Mike Brady first emphasized the need to put
health before business interests and shed light on the consultation
process, rather than negotiation with the business sector, which led to
the adoption of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk
Substitutes in 1981.

He then showed that, despite its integration in the human rights
framework through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Code is
still widely violated by baby food companies because of a lack of
implementation and enforcement at national level. Indeed, States that
host baby food companies may be reluctant to put their corporations at a
competitive disadvantage by taking more robust action than other
countries. It stresses the need for an international mechanism that will
help create a level playing field.

Mike Brady shared IBFAN’s 35-year long experience of working with
voluntary mechanisms such as the Global Compact or the OECD Guidelines
for Multinational Enterprises which have ultimately failed in
holding corporations accountable for their Code violations.

Therefore, when people say the UN Global Compact and OECD Guidelines
make a binding treaty unnecessary, IBFAN disagrees. On the contrary,
IBFAN believes that international binding norms are necessary to hold
corporations fully accountable for their human rights violations,
including for their violations of the Code.